“Sovcomflot” will start exploitation of tankers on liquefied natural gas

Serious ecological restrictions have stimulated ship owners, cargo shippers and shipbuilders actively to search for new technological solutions that allow reducing emissions to the atmosphere from ships and other marine transport.

Thus, the largest Russian shipping company “Sovcomflot” counts on a comprehensive solution that will be effective from both environmental and economic points of view. The company will begin exploitation of tankers of type and size “Aframax”. Exactly such ships are the most popular in servicing of global trade in hydrocarbons and specifically designed to operate on liquefied natural gas. Advantages are obvious - an engine on LNG emits on 90 percent less sulfur oxides, on 80 percent less nitrogen oxides and on 15 percent less carbon dioxide than a standard engine on heavy fuel.These tankers of the new generation will replenish the fleet of the group “Sovcomflot”, starting with June of 2018, as it is reported on the website of the company. The deadweight of each tanker makes 114 thousand tonnes; they will have ice class 1A that allow them year-round and safe transportation of oil from regions with challenging ice conditions, including subarctic seas. The company “Shell” will provide the new generation of tankers with gas motor fuel. Technical specification of the new tankers was developed by technical specialists of “Sovcomflot” in cooperation with foreign partners and with active participation of the Far Eastern center of shipbuilding and ship repair. It is expected that in 2020 construction of such vessels can be localized on the shipbuilding complex “Zvezda” in Primorsky Krai. In fact, the talk is about transfer of new, clean and “green” technologies to Russia.“We hope that the beginning of large-scale exploitation of large tankers on LNG by “Sovcomflot” marks transfer to the new global standard of shipping in general. It is significant that after the solution of “Sovcomflot” several global shipping companies also announced about use of vessels on gas motor fuel. Thus, there is every chance that exactly 2020-s will become a decade of active transfer of marine transport to gas”, as the first deputy director general of “Sovcomflot” Igor Tonkovidov notes.